The invention relates to a device for loading containers that include a neck onto a transporting element.
The invention relates more particularly to a device for loading containers with a vertical axis comprising an upper neck, and in particular preforms made of thermoplastic material, onto a transporting element which comprises at least one individual member for grasping a container by its neck and which is able to transport the preform along a horizontal transport path, of the type in which the grasping member is able to catch or release the neck of the preform by vertically sliding the preform into a grasping position relative to the grasping member in an operation for grasping or releasing the preform, the loading device comprising means for selectively ejecting the container from the transporting element, when the container is incorrectly held by the individual grasping member after the grasping operation, in a releasing operation.
The present invention relates to refinements made to devices for loading containers or preforms having a neck, notably bottles, onto a transporting element which is equipped with individual members for grasping containers by their neck. These grasping members are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined pitch and the containers are brought to the loading device one after the other spaced apart by the predetermined pitch.
These loading devices are in particular suited to container production and/or filling installations. Thus, in container production installations, preforms are transported by such a transporting element through a preheating oven before the duly heated preforms are transformed into containers by a blow-molding operation.
In this type of installation, it happens that containers, and in particular preforms, are incorrectly held or caught by the grasping member of the transporting element. The preform then risks falling from the transporting element during its travel.
To avoid this problem, it is known that the incorrectly held preforms must be ejected at the start of the travel in order for the preforms not to fall in places that can threaten the operation of the installation, for example inside an oven.
However, in the known installations, the preforms are ejected with little precision, which entails providing a fairly wide ejected-preform recovery area.